Trailer: Into the Wild

I read Jon Krakauer’s book Into the Wild a while ago. It is an amazing story about a young man who is out to challenge and to discover himself. He gives away or leaves all that he has to wander the world and to live in the wild in Alaska.

I read this and Krakauer’s other book, Into Thin Air. I liked them both. Well now the story of Chris McCandless will be told on the big screen. And the Into the Wild trailer looks pretty powerful.

I don’t see how into the wild can be made into a great movie. Yes the book was good although not a very uplifting story. Chris while an interesting character really is neither a hero or a villan. He is just an idealistic kid who got in way over his head. Basically he died because he was completely unprepared to survive in the environment he found himself. It is a sad story.

Into thin air is a great book. However Krakauer’s treatment of Anatoli Boukreev is almost criminal. What happend on Everest in 1996 was tradjec but these people knew what they were getting into. Into thin Air shows Boukreev as an inept guide who does nothing to help his fellow climbers. In fact Boukreev ends up saving at least 4 people and is willing to go back out into a blizzard at camp IV when no other climber, guide or Shepa is willing or able.

Boukreev is a hero. It is unfortunately that Into Thin Air treats him so poor. There are gross mistatments of fact in the book which Krakauer has been informed of and choosen not to correct.

While no where near as well as written as into thin Air. The Climb by Boukreev gives a much better accounting of what really happened.

Read into Thin Air it is an enjoyable book but do the world a favor and also read “The Climb” to get the real story. It is sad that Krakauer is so wrong in his facts.

My feeling is that Krakauer was in way over his head and almost died on Everest. He is looking for someone to blame in an effort to explain why those people died. The sad fact is that Krakauer and the entire Adventure Consultants team lead by Rob Hall took and enromous risk. Some died some did not. Luck and ego played a huge role. Everest is not safe and the 1996 teams kept making decisions not to turn back and pushing the envelop. Those that made it down are luck.

Every single person on the expedition made mistakes Boukreev included but his decisions were always made with an eye towards safety and helping his clients.

Boukreev put his life on the line to save multiple people and should be remembered as a hero.

Ask Beck Weathers if he would have rather been on Rob Hall or Scott Fisher’s (Boukreev’s) expedition.

First, Krakauer himself has said that the made-for-TV version of Into Thin Air was awful, and I imagine he has learned his lesson about turning his books into movies.

Second, the family of Chris McCandless have turned down several proposals, most on the basis that Hollywood was going to stray from Krakauer’s story too much.

Third, love or hate Sean Penn, you have to acknowledge he’s not the type to phone anything in, as they say. He’s also a big fan of the book and has lobbied hard for the rights to make the film. I have faith that he will do it justice.